Felidae Centre strive to provide a safe haven for all wildlife that cannot be released back into the wild.
We aim to:
* Secure the conservation of various wildlife species
* Educate schools and the community about African wildlife
* Educate volunteers about animal conservation practices
* Care for sick, injured, and orphaned animals
* Preserve wildlife heritage in Africa and eradicate the destructive practice of breeding African big cats for tourism purposes and end the process of Canned Hunting
Felidae Centre was founded in 2010 by the Burger family when we had the opportunity to adopt 2 animals from a previous project. Around this time, the Burger family heard about Canned Hunting (a method of hunting in which an animal is kept in a confined area - such as a fenced enclosure - to vastly increase the likelihood of the hunter obtaining a kill for trophy purposes), which sparked the desire to work towards the eradication of this process and rescue African cats from hazardous environments.
Our predator farm is located in the well-known Free State province, South Africa, situated only 30km from the historical town of Kimberley with over 1000 hectares of pure Free State farmland available to expand the project and ensure the wellbeing of the animals in our care. We are constantly working to expand the enclosures on our farm mimicking a natural area for playing and shelter. Each enclosure accommodates the specific species’ needs.
The farm is home to an abundance of animals; lions, cheetahs, leopards, servals, caracals, African wild cats, bat-eared foxes, jackals, meerkats, vervet monkeys, capuchin monkeys, warthogs and more. We’ve taken in our animals for various reasons. Some cannot live in the wild on their own, some were ill or abandoned and many were rescued from unethical processes like canned hunting and breeding for tourism purposes. Where possible, we strive to release our animals back into the wild where they can live freely without any human interaction.
At Felidae, we put the needs of each animal first, ensuring they love their best possible life. We will never take an animal out of the field or away from its mom for entertainment, and will ensure that every animal at our facility will have the option to return to the wild if they are physically healthy and fit.
The volunteers at Felidae will get to work hands on with the founders of Felidae on a daily basis caring and assisting for every animals, making sure that we respect nature and every species and allow every person coming into the project to feel the difference that they make for the animals, and form part of the big Felidae family to care for the animals.
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